So you want to be a "Professional Editor"? Read this first

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McDirty
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Re: So you want to be a "Professional Editor"? Read this fir

Post by McDirty » Thu Jun 23, 2011 4:34 pm

Sorry if the topic of pricing has been mentioned already in the first post. However, the choice of how much a video editor should charge while working freelance is a very important one.

First of all, read this story:
http://www.videomaker.com/community/vid ... -for-hire/
I wonder sometimes, why people are so willing to pay an attorney $100 an hour, or and accountant $75 an hour, without really knowing the amount of time these skilled professionals really put into their cases, but the clients will swallow and pay anyway. However, these same people seem to think that anyone can buy an affordable camera nowadays, and shoot a quality piece themselves with no training, skills, vision or ideas. Amazing.
I encounter this almost everyday with people and it drives me crazy. :shock:
It's very important though to be upfront and honest about your pricing however, especially if someone wants to succeed in the freelance video business. You can only work for cheap money for so long before you go completely under and can't get out.

About pricing:
For Videographers
http://www.mindyourvideobusiness.com/?p=621

As for editors, there's a lot to contribute to how much you should charge for video editing depending on skills, equipment, time, competition, demand, etc. There have been a lot of discussions online that do talk about the pricing though:
http://www.hometheaterforum.com/forum/t ... eo-editing
http://forums.creativecow.net/readpost/17/817028
http://forums.creativecow.net/archivepost/17/226128

Here's also an hourly rate calculator for everyone to use:
http://freelanceswitch.com/rates/

Finally, people to BEWARE of:
Friends looking for deals, non-profit organizations, volunteer services, and any mofo who promises future business in exchange for low pay. Run far away from them! :nono:
Just remember, you're worth money and time. Don't let anyone take advantage of you just because they think this creative art form is easy and fast to do. Because it isn't!

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Castor Troy
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Re: So you want to be a "Professional Editor"? Read this fir

Post by Castor Troy » Thu Jun 23, 2011 6:54 pm

Great advice!

I was paid decently for my first gig, but every gig after that was chump change and not even worth the gas prices. :(
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Re: So you want to be a "Professional Editor"? Read this fir

Post by BasharOfTheAges » Thu Jun 23, 2011 9:26 pm

That's a great principled proclamation, but just like the lie of "one person can make a difference" it relies on a collective unified stance to get anywhere. If someone's willing to undercut you to get the job, and there are only so many jobs to go around, it's a race to the bottom.
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Re: So you want to be a "Professional Editor"? Read this fir

Post by blaku92 » Thu Aug 11, 2011 5:03 am

Hey everyone. Just wanted to say that Castor speaks the truth! I don't search through the org as often as I used to, but that's because I'm currently working in the industry (Hollywood) and doing pretty well. I got lucky and landed a full time editing/assistant editing job at a major production company that has offices in LA, Chicago and Seattle. I can't tell you how important the org has been in helping me get to where I am now. The fact that the website, guides, and creative communities are still around, really keeps me motivated to learn/do more. Anyway, here's some extra career advice I thought might be helpful:

- Many "professional" editors won't know much about their tools. This was probably different back when everything was on film and Editors had to teach their assistants how to do things the right way... (their way). Since everything is going digital now, you should use that to your advantage. Depending on comfort level and confidence in your knowledge of the fundamentals of digital film/video editing, when asked, you should be able to say to a Director or Editor, "Sure! I know about RED/EX1/Alexa." etc.. You'll be surprised how often you'll be able to make time to learn the process on the job.

- If you're new to LA and able to afford it, I HIGHLY suggest making education and socializing your two top priorities. Put more effort into learning your craft and meeting the right people than trying to get a job that just pays the bills. In fact, if you can, don't work! Be a full time student, but never present yourself to others as "trying to.." or "studying to be.."

- Don't expect to find great jobs within the first year of living in LA. You need the right people to recognize you by name. This takes time and it's why my previous bit of advice is important.

- Only work for free if you're absolutely sure that it's worth the investment of time. In my case, I once worked for free, but it was side-by-side with a great editor that hired me on his next feature. Know what you're getting into.

- Have some respect for yourself. Don't say yes all the time. No one respects a bitch, and you'll end up getting walked all over. Be respectful though, no one wants to work with a person that has a nasty attitude. Also, if you're rate is high, especially if you're an editor (not an Asisstant), Producers/Directors/whoever does the hiring will think you're worth more and might try to negotiate. The trick is to start high so that they'll feel like they got a great deal in the end, and hopefully you will too if you get more than what you realistically expected.

- Asistant Editor membership in the Union is half the cost of an Editor's and requires proof of 100 days of paid AE work (pay stubs). Good way to get your foot in the door.

- A lot of people who have never worked much with Avid hate it. This is ridiculous. Learn it. Love it. It has the best media management for big projects. Trust me, you'll miss it when you're working in FCP and are asked to consolidate a project. Trimming in Avid is geared more towards narrative cutting and can be very frustrating if you're not used to a hot key work style, but with Smart Tools (built into the program), it can be very to similar to the way FCP operates.


Well, this list got bigger than I thought it would be.. oh well. Hope it helps! Feel free to ask if anyone has any questions.
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Re: So you want to be a "Professional Editor"? Read this fir

Post by Brad » Thu Aug 11, 2011 8:01 am

blaku92 wrote:If you're new to LA and able to afford it, I HIGHLY suggest making education and socializing your two top priorities. Put more effort into learning your craft and meeting the right people than trying to get a job that just pays the bills. In fact, if you can, don't work! Be a full time student, but never present yourself to others as "trying to.." or "studying to be.."
This.

The whole "not what you know its who you know" thing became a cliche phrase for a reason. Obviously you SHOULD have the "what" already, but without the "who" it's going to be much more difficult. I've been working as a professional motion designer in Chicago for the last 2.5 years, and all of the jobs that I've received that have been worth a damn were obtained because I made friends with the right people. I used social media sites like Twitter and Facebook, followed people who I knew were big in the Chicago motion design scene, start up conversations with them, etc. I went to every meetup and in-person social event I could and talked to them about anything BUT work. It didn't take long for them to know me by name and become interested in my work.

While it's certainly important to know your craft and BE GOOD at what you do, it's equally important to just BE COOL. Be a relateable, friendly, non-asshole kinda person that can have a conversation about a myriad of topics, without being desperate. Desperation for acceptance makes you seem socially awkward most of the time. That being said, don't be shy either. There was a quote I read a while ago (don't remember who it was from) that was kinda harsh, but true to a certain extent. "Nobody ever got where they wanted to be by being shy" (or something along those lines). When you exude an air of confidence (not cockiness, there's a difference) with people and have genuinely interesting/funny things to say, people will remember you by face and by name, and THAT is the #1 goal when it comes to networking (or just making friends).
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Re: So you want to be a "Professional Editor"? Read this fir

Post by Castor Troy » Thu Aug 11, 2011 6:30 pm

Awesome! Great to see this thread is still going on and hasn't been locked. I wish I had actually talked more about the socializing aspect when I first made this thread.

Once I donate, I'm gonna append alot of this information to the top post. Any chance this can be a sticky?
"You're ignoring everything, except what you want to hear.." - jbone

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Re: So you want to be a "Professional Editor"? Read this fir

Post by Bahamut God » Sat Aug 13, 2011 7:22 am

Just spend the last hour reading though this post. I didn't know so many AMVs had or have made the jump to professionals. I'll tell my story because I like talking about myself, but also because I took one of those slightly different path than most. I'm going to give simple quick tips and the end, so if my personal story doesn't interest you (and honestly it shouldn't) just skip down to there.

I've been working as a full time Assist Editor / Post Production Coordinator / Office Tech / Sometimes Editor, for a infomercial house in LA for just around 3 years now. Notice I said sometimes editor, during my journey I learned I enjoyed post production, but not much professional editing. There are professional jobs for people like me.

I loved working with AMVs in high school (so many years ago) and didn't now what I wanted to do. I took a film class thinking it was a elective class in CC college that might help me with AMVs and decided why not go for it. Turned into me making the rather stupid decision to go though with it, and went for my AA and BA in film. One weird thing I found, I was the only person in film school who he wanted to edit. Most editors will describe themselves as failed directors, and everyone in film school wanted to be a director. I love computers, so my love was always post production. I was lucky enough to be going to school just as FCP was really taking off.)

One warning, fIlm school is easy, do not be deceived, working isn't. My final years in film school mostly consisted of going to class and watching movies. Really, it was a cake walk, but you pay for that later on.

Once I had my BA in film, I quickly realized I had not fucking clue what to do next. I'm not a good networker, I don't really like people enough for that, and had no relatives or friends working in the industry. I am a hard worker though, so after looking for work as an editor for around 7-8 months with out much luck. My resume would go out, but I would never hear back. Pretty standard these days, but really frustrating. (I understand why now that I have been on the other end, wading though 100's of resumes) I started to tweak my resume bit by bit, and suddenly it started getting me interviews. Basically I added a "personal qualities" section to the end of my resume which I peppered with jokes. Seems to have gotten people attention because interviews really picked up afterwards.

But just because you can get an interview doesn't mean you can get a job. After a few months I realized I need more experience, and after being rejected at one interview, I said, how do you feel about me coming in as an intern? "We would fucking love to have you work for free" they replied. I worked 8 hours days a week, FOR SIX MONTHS. Please know that during this time I was living at home, and working part time as a lifeguard. (makes pretty good money) There was no other way to make this work, and I was just lucky enough to be raised in LA. After six months I realized they were never going to hire me on, moved on to my next internship for code monkeys which was also a few days a week and lasted about 6 weeks until I quit it because I was hired at my current job. BTW, 2 weeks after I was hired at my job, was accepted into the JET program, but didn't go teach english to japanese kids in japan because I had the job I was looking for. I'm happy because I wouldn't be married now, but job wise I'm not sure how I would feel about it. I don't work in "hollywood", I work in infomercials which is really only one step better than porn (or not depending on personal preference). I hate editing infomercials, so I started to specialize in the technical and managerial spectrum of post production.

==

...Meh, I'm starting to bore myself, so here are a few bullet point tips I've learned from being in post production.

• If you want to edit narratives, you need to assist edit first.

• If you live in LA, it's a no brainer to apply for the A.C.E. Internship. I did, didn't get in, but if you apply they have a pretty awesome seminar that has great information about getting assist editing jobs, and how to move from there to an editor. http://ace-filmeditors.org/about-2/ace-intern-program/ When I went to the seminar, I met people from all over the world who wanted it, and flew to america just to go to the seminar. I'm not sure if it's worth a plane ticket to go though. I gave some poor bloke who had flown out from england for TWO DAYS just to come to seminar a ride back to his hotel so he wouldn't have to get a taxi, and the A.C.E. editor who was running the seminar over head me offer him the ride and got me a brief internship with another A.C.E. editor she knew. Awesome chance although it didn't pan out any work for me. Looks good on a resume too, I have A.C.E. Internship Symptom, and listed my self as a guest. A.C.E. also has an editing competition once a year around September or November I think. Costs 100$ fee to enter last I checked, but maybe something to consider. (I never tried.)

• It's discouraging, but be prepared for resumes sent out to not pan out to much. I spent a lot of time sending resumes to job posting on craigslist, never to hear anything back. Now I have been on the receiving ends of the huge wave of resumes that come in from a craigslist post, I understand what was happening. 100s and 100s of resumes come in over the course of the first 4 days, so it's just luck if you manage to be noticed even if you are qualified, even harder if you aren't.

• Internships are somewhat effective, but don't stay too long. I stayed too long... Contrary to what I've seen written in this thread, try and do internship for places that are more legitimate. You really waste your time working for somebody's personal project that isn't every going to get off the ground. My wife spent a lot of time doing internships under shady circumstances at people homes and it really didn't pan out for her.

• It's more who you know than blah blah blah. It's true, it's crushingly true. But I didn't know anybody. My wife (who I meet in film school) doesn't much have trouble getting freelance work were I work because she, uh, knows me, but she doesn't have any other contacts so she's going to be going back to school to be an accountant.

• Every internship, Job, post house, and sound house I have ever been to used Macs. Standard post production programs I've seen are FCP, Avid, After Effects, Photo Shop, Pro Tools. There is currently not much professional work with Premier, but that may be changing fast as Final Cut Pro X is the devil spawn of prosumer sensibilities. I've specilized in FCP, I love FCP, and it looks like FCPX is simply not going to be a viable option in the future, so I may be reading though premiere tutorials pretty quick.
-Ok, there was one exception to the mac rule, the community access channel for the city of Torrance was cutting with avid running on PC.

• Fun Fact, Beta still lives in post production. That blew my mind when I learned that. What little SD work is left (we do a lot of it at my office) is normally "backed up" to Beta Sp or Digibeta.

• The biggest difference between a amateur and professional editor is organization. When working on an AMV, you are working mostly on your own. However, in most editing jobs you are editing as part of a team. Which means you need to make sure that what you have done, what you are going to do, and what needs to be done is apparent to several other people. This requires a system, often called a post production workflow. As an editor / assist editor you may be expected to create this system. If the system is already in place, you will be expected to follow that system. Sometimes this make editing slower, or harder for an individual, because it create extra steps. But trying to edit with mutable people with out a system is a even worse nightmare. If this sound confusing or odd to you, I suggest finding an internship, or classes where you can learn this difference before trying to take paid work.

• I've never taken classes here so I can't really endorse it, but moviola seems to have some classes that look like they are actually useful to people who want to learn about post production. I would suggest Assistant Editing essentials if you already feel like you know advanced editing, which if have made a few videos or one a few awards you probably already have the program you use down better than most professionals. Again, I have never taken a class from these people, but I know people who have and liked it and learned. (although they didn't have to pay for the class themselves, got company to foot bill, which might dual their expectations. I'm trying to talk them into sending me to the red camera class. http://www.moviola.com/edu/all_classes


Bottom line, it's risky and dangerous business. I kind of wish I had gone to school for computer science now, I think I would have made more and had more job security. On the other hand, it was pretty cool when I was in the same building as South Park and I do love what I do, even if it stresses me out.

==

I may regret this, and I can't promise anything, but if you live around Culver City area and are want to try and get freelance work in infomercials for assist editing, editing, or as an after effects artist e-mail me a resume, reel, or whatever you have. I don't have final decision on hires, but sometimes I can at least get your resume in the "consider" pile, and I actually have a very healthy respect for AMVs, being a failed AMV editor myself. We only hire new freelancers a few times a year. One requirement though, we are a very heavy FCP office, and if you don't know FCP fairly well, please don't send me your resume until you do. (Premiere and FCP aren't very different though.)

-Holy crap, this got really long

TLDR: Bahamut God is persistent but mostly lucky.
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Re: So you want to be a "Professional Editor"? Read this fir

Post by Bahamut God » Sat Aug 13, 2011 7:54 am

Hmm, after I posted that I went though the trouble of editing it all to take out most of the typos, false sentances, and other crap that sneaks in when you write 2-3 pages at 5:00 am. But I don't see a way to edit my last post. I seem to remember back in the 2005 days they took that feature away, is it still gone? Shit, now maybe I remember why I don't post on the forums any more. :asd:

Anyway here is the cleaned up post, could a mod please delete the one above? Thanks!

--

Just spend the last hour reading though this post. I didn't know so many AMVers had or have made the jump to professionals. I'll tell my story because I like talking about myself, but also because I took a slightly different path than most. I'm going to give simple quick tips at the end, so if my personal story doesn't interest you (and honestly it shouldn't) just skip down to there.

I've been working as a full time Assist Editor / Post Production Coordinator / Office Tech / Sometimes Editor, for a infomercial house in LA for just around 3 years now. Notice I said sometimes editor, during my journey I learned I enjoyed post production, but not much professional editing. There are professional jobs for people like me.

I loved working with AMVs in high school (I graduated in 2002 to give you basic timeline) and didn't know what I wanted to do. I took a film class thinking it was an elective class in CC college, that might help me with AMVs. That turned into me making the rather stupid decision to go all they way with it, and went for my AA and BA in film. One weird thing I found, I was the only person in film school who he wanted to edit. Lots of editors will describe themselves as failed directors, and I can say that everyone else in film school wanted to be a director. I love computers, so my love was always post production.

One warning, fIlm school is easy, do not be deceived, working isn't. My final years in film school mostly consisted of going to class and watching movies. Really, it was a cake walk, but you pay for that later on.

Once I had my BA in film, I quickly realized I had no clue whats to do next. I'm not a good networker, I don't really like people enough for that, and had no relatives or friends working in the industry. I am a hard worker though, but I ended up looking for work 10-15 hours a week as an editor for 7-8 months with out much luck. My resume would go out to 10 places a day, but I would never hear anything back. Pretty standard these days, but really frustrating. I understand why this was happening now that I have been on the other end, wading though 100's of resumes. I started to tweak my resume bit by bit, and suddenly it started getting me interviews. Basically I added a "personal qualities" section to the end of my resume which I peppered with jokes. Seems to have gotten some peoples attention because interviews really picked up afterwards.

But just because you can get an interview doesn't mean you can get a job. After a few months I realized I need more experience, and after being rejected at one interview, I said, how do you feel about me coming in as an intern? "We would fucking love to have you work for free" they replied. I worked 8 hours day 2-3 times a week, FOR SIX MONTHS. Please know that during this time I was living at home, and working part time as a lifeguard. (makes pretty good money) There was no other way to make this work, and I was just lucky enough to be raised in LA and be able to live at home. After six months I realized they were never going to hire me on, moved on to my next internship for code monkeys which was lasted about 6 weeks until I quit it because I was hired at my current job. BTW, 2 weeks after I was hired at my job, was accepted into the JET program, but didn't go teach english to japanese kids in japan because I had the job I was looking for. I'm happy because I wouldn't be married now, but job wise I'm not sure how I would feel about it. I don't work in "hollywood", I work in infomercials which is really only one step better than porn (or not depending on personal preference). I hate editing infomercials, so I started to specialize in the technical and managerial spectrum of post production.

==

...Meh, I'm starting to bore myself, so here are a few bullet point tips I've learned from being in post production.

• If you want to edit narratives, you need to assist edit first.

• If you live in LA, it's a no brainer to apply for the A.C.E. Internship. I did, and didn't get in, and since they only take 2 people a year, more than likely neither will you. But if you apply they have a pretty awesome seminar that has great information about getting assist editing jobs, and how to move from there to an editor. http://ace-filmeditors.org/about-2/ace-intern-program/ When I went to the seminar, I met people from all over the world who wanted it, and flew to america just to go to the seminar. I'm not sure if it's worth a plane ticket to go though. I gave some poor bloke who had flown out from england for TWO DAYS just to come to seminar a ride back to his hotel so he wouldn't have to get a taxi, and the A.C.E. editor who was running the seminar over heard me offer him the ride and got me a brief internship with another A.C.E. editor she knew as some kind of karma award. Awesome chance, although it didn't pan out any work for me. Looks good on a resume too, I have A.C.E. Internship Symptom on mine, and listed my self as a guest. A.C.E. also has an editing competition once a year around September or November I think. Costs 100$ fee to enter last I checked, but maybe something to consider. (I never tried.)

• It's discouraging, but be prepared for resumes sent out to not pan out to much. I spent a lot of time sending resumes to job posting on craigslist, never to hear anything back. Now I have been on the receiving ends of the huge wave of resumes that come in from a craigslist post, I understand what was happening. 100s and 100s of resumes come in over the course of the first 4 days, so it's just luck if you manage to be noticed even if you are qualified, even harder if you aren't. I did get my job from a random craigslist add though.

• I keep saying my full time job, but full time jobs are really rare, and full time editing jobs are almost unheard of. Most jobs are freelance. There are full time infomercials jobs though, but we still only have like 10 full time employees and we are a fairly big infomercial house, and only one of those is an editor (if you don't count me). Freelancers make more per hour, but there is always that chance you won't find work for a few months.

• Internships are somewhat effective, but don't stay too long. I stayed too long... Contrary to what I've seen written in this thread, try and do internship for places that are more legitimate. You really waste your time working for somebody's personal project that isn't every going to get off the ground. My wife spent a lot of time doing internships under shady circumstances at people homes and it really didn't pan out for her. I never had any trouble finding internships, but I've heard from friends that even unpaid ones can be competitive.

• It's more who you know than blah blah blah. It's true, it's crushingly true. But I didn't know anybody. My wife (who I meet in film school) doesn't much have trouble getting freelance work were I work because she, uh, knows me, but she doesn't have any other contacts so she's going to be going back to school to be an accountant. So there are exceptions, but it's still true.

• Every internship, Job, post house, and sound house I have ever been to used Macs. Standard post production programs I've seen are FCP, Avid, After Effects, Photoshop, Pro Tools. There is currently not much professional work with Premier, but that may be changing fast as Final Cut Pro X is the devil spawn of prosumer sensibilities. I've specilized in FCP, I love FCP, and it looks like FCPX is simply not going to be a viable option in the future, so I may be reading though premiere tutorials pretty soon.
-Ok, there was one exception to the mac rule, the community access channel for the city of Torrance was cutting with avid running on PC.

• Fun Fact, Beta still lives in post production. That blew my mind when I learned that. What little SD work is left (we do a lot of it at my office) is normally "backed up" to Beta Sp or Digibeta.

• The biggest difference between a amateur and professional editor is organization. When working on an AMV, you are working mostly on your own. However, in most editing jobs you are editing as part of a team. Which means you need to make sure that what you have done, what you are going to do, and what needs to be done is apparent to several other people. This requires a system, often called a post production workflow. As an editor / assist editor you may be expected to create this system. If the system is already in place, you will be expected to follow that system. Sometimes this make editing slower, or harder for an individual, because it creates extra steps. But trying to edit with a team of people without a system is an even worse nightmare. If this sounds confusing or odd to you, I suggest finding an internship, or classes where you can learn this difference before trying to take paid work. It's not that complicated but it's important and take more than a few hours to understand.

• I've never taken classes here so I can't really endorse it, but moviola seems to have some classes that look like they are actually useful to people who want to learn about post production. I would suggest Assistant Editing essentials if you already feel like you know advanced editing, which if have made a few videos or one a few awards you probably already have the program you use down better than most professionals. Again, I have never taken a class from these people, but I know people who have and liked it and learned. (although they didn't have to pay for the class themselves, got company to foot bill, which might dual their expectations. I'm trying to talk them into sending me to the red camera class. http://www.moviola.com/edu/all_classes Again this advice for people who live in LA.


Bottom line, it's risky and dangerous business. I kind of wish I had gone to school for computer science now, I think I would have made more and had more job security. On the other hand, it was pretty cool when I was in the same building as South Park and I do love what I do, even if it stresses me out.

==

I may regret this, and I can't promise anything, but if you live around Culver City area and are want to try and get freelance work in infomercials for assist editing, editing, or as an after effects artist e-mail me a resume, reel, or whatever you have. I don't have final decision on hires, but sometimes I can at least get your resume into the "consider" pile, and I actually have a very healthy respect for AMVs, being a failed AMV editor myself. We only hire new freelancers a few times a year. One requirement though, we are a very heavy FCP office, and if you don't know FCP fairly well, please don't send me your resume unless you do, it will go badly for everyone involved. We are also looking for After Effects artistes, although we have had the same two great guys with us for the better part of a year now so we may not be hiring AE graphics guys any time soon.

-Holy crap, this got really long

TLDR: Bahamut God is persistent but mostly lucky.
[Visit my Profile, it hates Bush!]
[Feel bad for someone who killed a kid]
"I'm telling you, I want to be a loser."-Khushrenada
I have a titley thing, and you might not. ^_^/

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Re: So you want to be a "Professional Editor"? Read this fir

Post by SQ » Mon Aug 15, 2011 8:40 am

I had a small stint as a pro editor, and pretty much all of what you said is true. It's why I decided not to go into editing as a career.
I still want to edit music videos and commercials at some point, but I think I'll do it when I'm also their producer. And I can throw a bunch of money at shit, so it's not about the paycheck. xD

For some insight, I started out WAY small. I went to college for video production and I made my first connections there. My irst gig was actually through MySpace-- I was to be Video B for an interview with Yoshitaka Amano (final fantasy character designer) as well as edit the resulting interview. I made no money for it, but it was fucking Amano so I did it anyway and had somethig cool to put on my resume.

After that, I made a demo reel of mostly AMVs and some flash stuff I had done(I used to animate shitty stuff, as well) and one of my professors was really interested in my "chopping like a helicopter" skills. AMVs got me my first real paying job. Through him I was able to secure a place in a very small 2-person production company that focused on mainly PSAs for Tampa Florida. I did all sorts of crap there, not just edit. But editing was my main focus. I made $10/hr under the table which IS ABSOLUTELY NOT TYPICAL.
Through working with him, I was able to gain even more contacts and through there I worked on advertisements for a while. I made $100/day doing that (this is more normal).

Since I was doing this while still going to college and learning basically everything that Castor has lined out for you here, I realized that while I still really loved editing, I hated the industry, so I probably wasn't going to do it for a living.
If you want a good idea of what you'll be doing as a professional editor, go do "48 Hour film project". I was head editor on that, and dear god... But then the absolute same thing happened with my school's "final project" class(a whole quarter where you produce a short film start to finish, including raising your own budget money). I was associate producer for that, as well as editor, and there were many, many sleepless nights.

The pay may look good on the outside($100/day! OMG, right??) but when you factor in how many hours you work, you're practically working for minimum wage(or less). It really sucks over the long haul, that's why many people I knew used editing as their second or third job.

Anyway, I graduated college RIGHT when the economy went to a glorified shithole in 2008ish. I couldn't find a job for the life of me-- nothing even slightly multimedia-related. I did get two phone interviews with Turner Broadcasting- they wanted me to work on their Joomla content (Joomla had JUST started at the time) but the whole thing fell through.

I'm in the military now doing shit that's totally unrelated, like, fixing advanced avionics equipment, preventing the ship from sinking, and, oh yeah, managing my department's website for some reason. :lol: (I used to do webdesign as a hobby too).

Anyway, if you have drive, go for it. Do not stop if it's your absolute dream to become an editor.
Just don't expect it to be anything like AMVs.
Castor Troy hit it right on the head. :3

Good luck to you, Castor, on becoming an A.C.E., by the way. I hope to see your names in credits soon.
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Re: So you want to be a "Professional Editor"? Read this fir

Post by SQ » Mon Aug 15, 2011 9:08 am

SQ wrote: I did get two phone interviews with Turner Broadcasting- they wanted me to work on their Joomla content (Joomla had JUST started at the time) but the whole thing fell through.
By Joomla, I meant Joost. I was supposed to edit/manage Turner's Joost content.

I don't know where the hell Joomla came from.
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